MSU film up for NAMA award

The Midlands State University Film and Theatre Arts students film “Things we do for Love” has been nominated for a National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) award for Outstanding screen production-short film.

The film will battle it out with “Ruvimbo’s wedding” directed by Ben Mahaka and “Baba the Joys of Fatherhood” directed by Ignatious Matope.

This nomination comes after the film won the best short film in the ZIFF festival held in Harare late last year.

“The story is about a young man who falls in love with a deaf and dumb woman and it’s sort of a comedy.

“It was shot last year and produced in Zvishavane and the location we used Maglas residential area where some people refer to as a deserted suburb.

“It was directed by Derby Bheta,” said Godknows Chera, producer of the film who is also member of staff in the Film and Theatre Arts department at the Zvishavane campus.

Chera said the nomination “is a major accomplishment for our students and the department. As a producer, I am happy that the young generation has managed to understand low budget film making.”

He added that the vision is to create more such productions which will also create jobs for the young and talented.

“We want to produce more talent in Zvishavane and Zimbabwe at large. We want to create our own local content here and become the flagship of the Zimbabwean industry in the new dispensation in support of digitalisation and STEM program.

“We are part of the noble idea of STEM because we use technology and we move with it. As a department we want to nurture talent and provide opportunities for our students to shine and open their new companies. The group of students who were involved have gone an extra mile by opening their own company called College Central.

“We create our own jobs and that’s the way the country must be run,” added Chera.